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Monday, July 27, 2015

Hummus twist

I've had to change my diet over the years, as certain foods struggled to be digested. One of the more surprising foods I had to eliminate, was from the legume family. Out went peanuts, peanut butter and more devastatingly, chickpeas! Why chickpeas? Well, it was the staple ingredient for hummus - one of my favourite dips. I could snack on hummus without a side-dish of crackers. In fact, I preferred it straight.

So imagine how delighted I was to learn from a friend, that hummus can be made from other things than chickpeas. Dehydrated zucchini? Not only didn't I know you could make hummus from vegetables, but I didn't know you could dehydrate zucchini either.

Good things to know!

Use a food processor

So I looked in my crisper to find what I could use. Half a cauliflower and one zucchini later, I chopped and cooked them until softer, but still rubbery. I didn't want too much water in my dip, so the more the vegetables held their form, the better.

I even made my own Tahini sauce, which you can find the recipe for here. Its just sesame seeds and oil.

Ready to eat!

I whizzed everything up in my food processor, adding the extra flavours to taste. You can find the recipe I use for hummus, here and ground cumin is a must, plus lime juice instead of lemon. That is my slight variation.

But I have to tell you, this tasted better than any chickpea hummus I've made before. In fact, as I was cooking the cauliflower and zucchini, it smelled exactly like the chickpeas I cooked formerly. Its also easier than having to soak chickpeas overnight. And no heavy bloating after eating, either. Bonus!

Who knew you could eat zucchini and cauliflower, in a dip? I look forward to experimenting with other vegetables too.

6 comments:

Who knew indeed! Although I don't have problems with chickpeas, this recipe looks interesting and gives me a reason for drying excess zucchini next season. And thanks for the home-made tahini link too. So easy. Can't imagine why I'm still buying it.

Zucchini is a real glut crop when in production, so it's perfect for dehydrating! Finding that Tahini recipe was great for me too. I bought a large bag of sesame seeds, as they store really well, and made up the quantities as required.

You don't have to do the 4 cups in the recipe either. I found halving it, gave me enough for two rounds of hummus. So I only make half at a time.

I'm so glad you tried it! I have made it with fresh veg as well-close to what you did here. I like it just as much but the dehydrated zuchinni was not as wet so I enjoyed the texture more though the flavor is almost the same. I will have to try this with a mix like you did-I bet that was fantastic! I tried cauliflower alone when I was on the Whole 30 diet and it was okay-I think the zuchinni really gives it more depth the way chickpeas do however.

Thanks for sharing your different experiences with hummus, as I can now add it back into my diet again!

I knew you used dehydrated zucchini and didn't cook it, so figured I had to mimic that quality (as much as I could) with fresh veg. Hence, why I cooked it just long enough to take the raw crunch away, without overcooking. I was surprised how well the two veg combinations worked together though. They seem like bland vegetables, but the zucchini really adds the texture the cauli lacks - which is what you mentioned about the zucchini adding depth too. But the cauli adds more flavour to the zucchini, and gives that feint fermented aroma.

I was tempted to throw in a carrot to give it a more recognisable hummus colour, but decided to try it in another batch instead. I'm happy to report, I fed some to Peter too, and his response was "yum". :)

Carrot hummus sounds marvelous to me. Try the pumpkin one as well. It might be my favorite hands down. Did you use as much oil in the tahini as it calls for at the link? It seems excessive to me-so just wondering.

I only use the oil measurement in the recipe as a guideline, adding as much as it makes it possible to get the sauce out of the container. So I suggest you add as much oil, that suits your situation and requirements. I find if I don't add enough, its too thick, and I struggle to scrape it out of the processor.